Personification In The Darkling Thrush By Thomas Hardy

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In “The Darkling Thrush,” Thomas Hardy skillfully employs personification, syntax, and descriptive diction in order to convey that hope can always be found even amidst death and destruction. In the time Hardy writes this poem, the Industrial Revolution in Britain had been dwindling down and factories and smog had filled the air. He uses the poem in a way to express the devastating effects the modern world has on nature through personification, as well as the use of diction. He introduces a shift from hopeless to hopeful through a change in syntax. Although the environment may convey the feeling of demise and annihilation of something, Hardy argues that hope can be found in even the most minuscule of things.
The Darkling Thrush has a variety
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By doing so Hardy is able to convey the darkness that is making its presence stronger in the forest. The speaker finds himself in a dying forest and notes that the “Frost was spectre-grey,” (2). Spectre connotes an eerie presence of a ghost. By defining it as a phantom, “Frost” is given a human characteristic that appears at the end of a life. Since the winter frost covers the landscape, Hardy is alluding to the fact that death is slowly descending upon the forest. As the speaker surveys the landscape, the speaker notices “The weakening eye of day”(3). This conveys that all hope is starting to fade because “day” connotes to hope, and by personifying day with “weakening eye.” Also by choosing the word “weakening” Hardy is able to portray death due to the fact that weakening connotes to the loss of something. Hardy is able to convey that all hope is starting to fade away and is being replaced by …show more content…
The tenth and eleventh lines expands on the diminishing hope. The speaker observes“The land’s sharp features seemed to be the century’s corpse outleant,”(10-11). The speaker states that the land is a map of everything that has happened over the course of the century. By personifying “Century”, the Hardy gives it human-like characteristics as if the century itself is dead and the corpse is left behind as the land that the speaker is observing. The word “corpse” aids the point of the dead century due to the fact that corpse connotes to a dead rotting body. By saying “outleant” Hardy uses wordplay to emphasize the idea of death because “ outleant” connotes to remains, which shows that century’s corpse is apparent everywhere. To further emphasize the diminishing hope in the world, the speaker feels that "His crypt the cloudy canopy, the wind his death-lament”(12-13). The alliteration of ‘c’ as well as “Century’s corpse” intensifies the atmosphere of gloom and deathliness. ‘Death-lament’ gives the impression of a death rattle being sung by the wind. The use of the word ‘his’ makes the wind more familiar and human-like. By making the wind seem more familiar Hardy makes the deathly wind common occurrence. The word “crypt” connotes to an underground burial place which gives helps in describing the landscape he refers to the landscape as an

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